Search

Appropriate needle manipulation to avoid abrupt deformation of fragile vessels is a critical determinant of the success of microvascular anastomosis. However, no study has yet evaluated the area changes in surgical objects using surgical videos. The present study therefore aimed to develop a deep learning-based semantic segmentation algorithm to assess the area change of vessels during microvascular anastomosis for objective surgical skill assessment with regard to the "respect for tissue." The semantic segmentation algorithm was trained based on a ResNet-50 network using microvascular end-to-side anastomosis training videos with artificial blood vessels. Using the created model, video parameters during a single stitch completion task, including the coefficient of variation of vessel area (CV-VA), relative change in vessel area per unit time (ΔVA), and the number of tissue deformation errors (TDE), as defined by a ΔVA threshold, were compared between expert and novice surgeons. A high validation accuracy (99.1%) and Intersection over Union (0.93) were obtained for the auto-segmentation model. During the single-stitch task, the expert surgeons displayed lower values of CV-VA (p < 0.05) and ΔVA (p < 0.05). Additionally, experts committed significantly fewer TDEs than novices (p < 0.05), and completed the task in a shorter time (p < 0.01). Receiver operating curve analyses indicated relatively strong discriminative capabilities for each video parameter and task completion time, while the combined use of the task completion time and video parameters demonstrated complete discriminative power between experts and novices. In conclusion, the assessment of changes in the vessel area during microvascular anastomosis using a deep learning-based semantic segmentation algorithm is presented as a novel concept for evaluating microsurgical performance. This will be useful in future computer-aided devices to enhance surgical education and patient safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Blockchain technologies can enable secure computing environments among mistrusting parties. Permissioned blockchains are particularly enlightened by companies, enterprises, and government agencies due to their efficiency, customizability, and governance-friendly features. Obviously, seamlessly fusing blockchain and cloud computing can significantly benefit permissioned blockchains; nevertheless, most blockchains implemented on clouds are originally designed for loosely-coupled networks where nodes communicate asynchronously, failing to take advantages of the closely-coupled nature of cloud servers. In this paper, we propose an innovative cloud-oriented blockchain – CloudChain, which is a modularized three-layer system composed of the network layer, consensus layer, and blockchain layer. CloudChain is based on a shared-memory model where nodes communicate synchronously by direct memory accesses. We realize the shared-memory model with the Remote Direct Memory Access technology, based on which we propose a shared-memory consensus algorithm to ensure presistence and liveness, the two crucial blockchain security properties countering Byzantine nodes. We also implement a CloudChain prototype based on a RoCEv2-based testbed to experimentally validate our design, and the results verify the feasibility and efficiency of CloudChain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The gain or loss of large chromosomal regions or even whole chromosomes is termed as genomic scarring and can be observed as copy number variations resulting from the failure of DNA damage repair. Results: In this study, a new algorithm called genomic scar analysis (GSA) has developed and validated to calculate homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) score. The two critical submodules were tree recursion (TR) segmentation and filtering, and the estimation and correction of the tumor purity and ploidy. Then, this study evaluated the rationality of segmentation and genotype identification by the GSA algorithm and compared with other two algorithms, PureCN and ASCAT, found that the segmentation result of GSA algorithm was more logical. In addition, the results indicated that the GSA algorithm had an excellent predictive effect on tumor purity and ploidy, if the tumor purity was more than 20%. Furtherly, this study evaluated the HRD scores and BRCA1/2 deficiency status of 195 clinical samples, and the results indicated that the accuracy was 0.98 (comparing with Affymetrix OncoScan™ assay) and the sensitivity was 95.2% (comparing with BRCA1/2 deficiency status), both were well-behaved. Finally, HRD scores and 16 genes mutations (TP53 and 15 HRR pathway genes) were analyzed in 17 cell lines, the results showed that there was higher frequency in HRR pathway genes in high HRD score samples. Conclusions: This new algorithm, named as GSA, could effectively and accurately calculate the purity and ploidy of tumor samples through NGS data, and then reflect the degree of genomic instability and large-scale copy number variations of tumor samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a two-step optimization-based design method for iterative learning control and applies it onto the quadrotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) trajectory tracking problem. Iterative learning control aims to improve the tracking performance through learning from errors over iterations in repetitively operated systems. The tracking errors from previous iterations are injected into a learning filter and a robust filter to generate the learning signal. The design of the two filters usually involves nontrivial tuning work. This paper presents a new two-optimization design method for the iterative learning control, which is easy to obtain and implement. In particular, the learning filter design problem is transferred into a feedback controller design problem for a purposely constructed system, which is solved based on H-infinity optimal control theory thereafter. The robust filter is then obtained by solving an additional optimization to guarantee the learning convergence. Through the proposed design method, the learning performance is optimized and the system's stability is guaranteed. The proposed two-step optimization-based design method and the regarding iterative learning control algorithm are validated by both numerical and experimental studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies the problem of intelligence optimization, a fundamental problem in analyzing the optimal solution in a wide spectrum of applications such as transportation and wireless sensor network (WSN). To achieve better optimization capability, we propose a multigroup Multistrategy Compact Sine Cosine Algorithm (MCSCA) by using the compact strategy and grouping strategy, which makes the initialized randomly generated value no longer an individual in the population and avoids falling into the local optimum. New evolution formulas are proposed for the intergroup communication strategy. Performance studies on the CEC2013 benchmark demonstrate the effectiveness of our new approach regarding convergence speed and accuracy. Finally, we apply MCSCA to solve the dispatch system of public transit vehicles. Experimental results show that MCSCA can achieve better optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The multi-angle polarimetric (MAP) satellite measurements provide abundant information concerning aerosol optical/microphysical properties. In this study, we present a robust and flexible aerosol retrieval algorithm for MAP measurements based on physics-informed deep learning (PDL) method. Different from optimized inversion that needs iterative Radiative Transfer (RT) calculations of all the unknowns, the PDL method can model the whole MAP observations with each retrieved aerosol parameter separately with the pre-training of RT simulations. Furthermore, the training of PDL can make full use of the prior information from ground-based aerosol inversions and satellite surface products, and provides an effective constraint to avoid unphysical values. To examine performance of PDL algorithm, we retrieve aerosols over eastern China from POLDER-3 measurements during 2007–2009. Comparison with AERONET products shows high correlations (R > 0.91) for both POLDER-3 PDL Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) and fine AOD. Despite lower correlations caused by a small portion of poor retrievals, PDL coarse AOD and Single Scattering Albdeo (SSA) is very consistent with AERONET results. Also, PDL retrievals perform well as the best estimates of optimized methods such as GRASP (Generalized Retrieval of Aerosol and Surface Properties). With an outstanding performance in accuracy and efficiency, the flexible PDL algorithm exhibits great potential for operational retrieval of MAP satellite measurements. • A robust aerosol algorithm is developed for MAP satellite observation. • The training of PDL method can make full use of existing priori information. • POLDER-3 PDL retrievals over eastern China have a good performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing the runtime behaviors of Android apps is crucial for malware detection. In this paper, we attempt to learn the behavior level features of an app from function calls. The challenges of this task are twofold. First, the absence of function attributes hinders the understanding of app behaviors. Second, the graphical representation of function calls cannot be directly processed by classical machine learning algorithms. In this paper, we develop two methods to overcome these challenges. Based on function embedding, we first propose the concept of enhanced function call graphs (E-FCGs) to characterize app runtime behaviors. We then develop a Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) based algorithm to obtain vector representations of E-FCGs. Extensive experiments show that the features learned by our method can achieve surprisingly high detection performance on a variety of classifiers (e.g., LR, DT, SVM, KNN, RF, MLP and CNN), significantly outperforming the traditional static features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: In this paper, we propose a filtering algorithm for simultaneously estimating the mode, input and state of hidden mode switched linear stochastic systems with unknown inputs. Using a multiple‐model approach with a bank of linear input and state filters for each mode, our algorithm relies on the ability to find the most probable model as a mode estimate, which we show is possible with input and state filters by identifying a key property, that a particular residual signal we call generalized innovation is a Gaussian white noise. We also provide an asymptotic analysis for the proposed algorithm and provide sufficient conditions for asymptotically achieving convergence to the true model (consistency), or to the "closest" model according to an information‐theoretic measure (convergence). A simulation example of intention‐aware vehicles at an intersection is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approaching to the biological neural network, small-world neural networks have been demonstrated to improve the generalization performance of artificial neural networks. However, the architecture of small-world neural networks is typically large and predefined. This may cause the problems of overfitting and time consuming, and cannot obtain an optimal network structure automatically for a given problem. To solve the above problems, this paper proposes a pruning feedforward small-world neural network (PFSWNN), and applies it to nonlinear system modeling. Firstly, a feedforward small-world neural network (FSWNN) is constructed according to the rewiring rule of Watts–Strogatz. Secondly, the importance of each hidden neuron is evaluated based on its Katz centrality. If the Katz centrality of a hidden neuron is below the predefined threshold, this neuron is considered to be an unimportant node and then merged with its most correlated neuron in the same hidden layer. The connection weights are trained using the gradient-based algorithm, and the convergence of the proposed PFSWNN is theoretically analyzed in this paper. Finally, the PFSWNN model is tested on some problems for nonlinear system modeling, including the approximation for a rapidly changing function, CATS missing time-series prediction, four benchmark problems of UCI public datasets and a practical problem for wastewater treatment process. Experimental results demonstrate that PFSWNN exhibits superior generalization performance by small-world property as well as the pruning algorithm, and the training time of PFSWNN is shortened owning to a compact structure. • The importance of the hidden nodes is measured using Katz centrality. • The small-worldness property and pruning improve the generalization performance of PFSWNN. • PFSWNN can self-adjust to a compact structure by the pruning algorithm. • The convergence of PFSWNN can be guaranteed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protein cysteine S-sulfenylation is an essential and reversible post-translational modification that plays a crucial role in transcriptional regulation, stress response, cell signaling and protein function. Studies have shown that S-sulfenylation is involved in many human diseases such as cancer, diabetes and arteriosclerosis. However, experimental identification of protein S-sulfenylation sites is generally expensive and time-consuming. In this study, we proposed a new protein S-sulfenylation sites prediction method SulSite-GTB. First, fusion of amino acid composition, dipeptide composition, encoding based on grouped weight, K nearest neighbors, position-specific amino acid propensity, position-weighted amino acid composition and pseudo-position specific score matrix feature extraction to obtain the initial feature space. Secondly, we use the synthetic minority oversampling technique (SMOTE) algorithm to process the class imbalance data, and the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) are employed to remove the redundant and irrelevant features. Finally, the optimal feature subset is input into the gradient tree boosting classifier to predict the S-sulfenylation sites, and the five-fold cross-validation and independent test set method are used to evaluate the prediction performance of the model. Experimental results showed the overall prediction accuracy is 92.86% and 88.53%, respectively, and the AUC values are 0.9706 and 0.9425, respectively, on the training set and the independent test set. Compared with other prediction methods, the results show that the proposed method SulSite-GTB is significantly superior to other state-of-the-art methods and provides a new idea for the prediction of post-translational modification sites of other proteins. The source code and all datasets are available at https://github.com/QUST-AIBBDRC/SulSite-GTB/. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The MODIS Multiple Angle Implication of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm enables simultaneous retrieval of aerosol and bidirectional surface reflectance at high resolution of 1 km. Taking advantage of multi-angle and image-based information, the MAIAC algorithm has great potential for improving retrieval of aerosols over both dark and bright surfaces. Here, by comparing MAIAC aerosol products with the ground-based observations at 9 typical sites spread out in China, we gain the insights regarding the performance of MAIAC algorithm, for the first time, over Asia that has complicated surface types, diverse aerosol sources, and heavy loading of aerosols in the atmosphere. While aerosol products from MAIAC show similar spatial distribution as that from MODIS Dark-Target (DT) and Deep-Blue (DB) algorithms, they are superior to reveal numerous hotspots of high AOD values in fine scales due to their higher resolution at 1 km. Moreover, since MAIAC algorithm for cloud screening uses time series of observations, it shows higher effectiveness to mask cloudy pixels as well as the pixels of the melting and aging ice/snow surfaces. While MAIAC and ground-observed AOD values show high correlation coefficient of ∼0.94 in two AERONET sites of Beijing and Xianghe, considerable bias is prevalent in other regions of China. Systematic underestimation is found over the deserts in western China likely due to the high bias of single scattering properties of aerosol model prescribed in MAIAC algorithm. In eastern China, the distinct positive bias is found in conditions with low-moderate AOD values and likely results from errors in regression coefficients in the surface reflectance model. Given its advantages in cloud and snow/ice screening and retrieval in fine spatial resolution, MAIAC algorithm can be improved by further refinement of regional aerosol and surface properties. • First comprehensive insight into performance of MAIAC aerosol algorithm in complicated background in China. • Accuracy of MAIAC retrievals exhibits distinct spatial variations and prevalent bias. • Aerosol and surface assumptions of MAIAC algorithm needs to be improved by considering regional variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiming at the problem that traditional similarity calculation method is not enough to capture the similarity relationship between users, a distributed collaborative filtering recommendation algorithm based on DHT is proposed for active users in distributed recommendation system to locate nearest neighbors. The algorithm searches the user's similar neighbor information according to the "fuzzy critical value" generated by the user's extreme score, so as to improve the search efficiency of the user similar neighbors. According to the distribution of user information, the calculation method of user neighbor similarity is improved. The similarity calculation is weighted, and the setting of the weights takes into account the two factors: the similarity degree between users and the inverse user information frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: For state‐of‐charge (SOC) estimation, the resistance deterioration and continuous capacity loss can lead to erroneous estimation results. In this paper, an SOC estimator of lithium‐ion battery based on the fractional‐order model and adaptive dual Kalman filtering algorithm is proposed first. Then, to improve the accuracy of SOC estimation considering capacity loss, the particle filter algorithm is applied to update capacity online in real time. Then, an SOC estimation method is proposed considering battery capacity loss. The simulation results show that the accuracy of battery capacity prediction based on particle filter is high under the condition of capacity loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to solve the problem of complex calculation and low real-time performance when using binocular vision ranging for UAV real-time line patrol, a binocular vision ranging scheme combining improved SIFT algorithm was proposed. A binocular vision model similar to monocular vision was adopted to reduce computation variables, the traditional SIFT algorithm was improved by reducing the number of scale spaces, reducing the dimension of feature vectors, and replacing the Euclidean distance with the block distance, so as to improve the matching efficiency of the uniform feature points of two images taken simultaneously by two cameras. The results showed that the matching time was reduced by 32% and the maximum error rate was reduced to 3. 75%. The method could meet the accuracy requirements of UAV fast real-time line patrol ranging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Owing to the comprehensive effects of dimensional disaster, interpolation error, and Markov characteristics of the controlled objects, the traditional dynamic programming algorithm has difficulty ensuring the efficiency of calculation, the accuracy of the results, and the rationality of the optimal control law when solving the optimal fuel economy problem for a multi-mode and multi-gear hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). To solve this problem, an improved dynamic programming algorithm, CQU-DP, is proposed herein. The algorithm can rapidly generate optimal solutions with high accuracy and rationality through grid size configuration, matrix expansion, filtering, and the introduction of state and control variable penalties. The optimal fuel economy of a parallel HEV with five gears and six modes was solved using this algorithm. The results indicated that compared with the traditional basic dynamic programming algorithm (B-DP) and an improved dynamic programming algorithm (SJTU-DP), the proposed optimization algorithm reduced the calculation time by 96.36% and 93.79%, and the fuel economy was increased by 26.63% and 1.92%, respectively. Additionally, the optimal control law was more reasonable. • Global optimal economy solution of hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). • Account efficiency, accuracy, and rationality. • A fast dynamic-programming algorithm is developed. • The algorithm is verified by comparing the results with two other dynamic programming algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a modified Precise Integration Method (PIM) for long-time duration dynamic analysis. The fundamental solution and loading operator matrices in the first time substep are numerically computed employing a known unconditionally stable method (referred to as original method in this paper). By using efficient recursive algorithms to evaluate these matrices in the first time-step, the same numerical results as those using the original method with small time-step are obtained. The proposed method avoids the need of matrix inversion and numerical quadrature formulae, while the particular solution obtained has the same accuracy as that of the homogeneous solution. Through setting a proper value of the time substep, satisfactory accuracy and numerical dissipation can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a novel time integration algorithm for solving linear structural dynamic problems in the framework of the high-order collocation method. When two Gauss points in the integration interval are selected as collocation points, both an A-stable algorithm with third order accuracy and a non-dissipative algorithm with fourth order accuracy can be derived from a second order collocation polynomial. The only difference is that the former obtains a numerical solution at the middle point of the time interval, while the latter has a solution at the end of the interval. A new composite method is established through applying these two algorithms alternately, which combines the advantages of the numerical dissipation property of the third order algorithm and the high-order accuracy of the fourth order algorithm. The usage frequency of the two algorithms during the whole step-by-step integration procedure is an important parameter affecting the numerical dissipation, which is investigated in this study. As the algebraic equations systems solved by the two algorithms are exactly same, no extra computation effort is introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most large field of view (FOV) observations, the distortion problem is inevitably and significantly more serious than in small FOV ones. In the circumstances, many traditional star identification approaches are not able to efficiently identify stars any more. In order to deal with this problem, we put forward a star identification method that is less sensitive to distortion. The method first processes stars in the central area of the image, using traditional identification logic, and then applies the region growing strategy to enlarge the identified regions iteratively until the entire image is covered. The performance of the new scheme is analysed in the presence of both simulated data and real data. The results show that the proposed algorithm has the advantage of speed, and the strategy of regional extension can efficiently identify stars in large FOV images compared with other existing algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Iterative learning control (ILC) is an effective technique that improves the tracking performance of systems by adjusting the feedforward control signal based on the memory data. The key in ILC is to design learning filters with guaranteed convergence and robustness, which usually involves lots of tuning effort especially in high-order ILC. To facilitate this procedure, this paper proposes a systematics approach to design learning filters for arbitrary-order ILC with guaranteed convergence, robustness and ease of tuning. The filter design problem is transformed into an H ∞ optimal control problem for a constructed feedback system. This approach is based on an infinite impulse response (IIR) system and conducted directly in iteration-frequency domain. The proposed algorithm is further advanced to the one that explicitly considers system variations based on μ synthesis. Important characteristics of the proposed approach such as convergence and robustness are explored and demonstrated through both simulations and experiments on a wafer scanning system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) in deep learning have input pixel limitations, which leads to lost information regarding microcalcification when mammography images are compressed. Segmenting images into patches retains the original resolution when inputting them into the CNN and allows for identifying the location of calcification. This study aimed to develop a mammographic calcification detection method using deep learning by classifying the presence of calcification in the breast. Using publicly available data, 212 mammograms from 81 women were segmented into 224 × 224-pixel patches, producing 15,049 patches. These were visually classified for calcification and divided into five subsets for training and evaluation using fivefold cross-validation, ensuring image consistency. ResNet18, ResNet50, and ResNet101 were used for training, each of which created a two-class calcification classifier. The ResNet18 classifier achieved an overall accuracy of 96.0%, mammogram accuracy of 95.8%, an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.96, and a processing time of 0.07 s. The results of ResNet50 indicated 96.4% overall accuracy, 96.3% mammogram accuracy, an AUC of 0.96, and a processing time of 0.14 s. The results of ResNet101 indicated 96.3% overall accuracy, 96.1% mammogram accuracy, an AUC of 0.96, and a processing time of 0.20 s. This developed method offers quick, accurate calcification classification and efficient visualization of calcification locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic liver segmentation not only plays an important role in the analysis of liver disease, but also reduces the cost and humanity’s impact in segmentation. In addition, liver segmentation is a very challenging task due to countless anatomical variations and technical difficulties. Many methods have been designed to overcome these challenges, but these methods still need to be improved to obtain the desired segmentation precision. In this paper, a fast algorithm is proposed for liver extraction from CT images with single-block linear detection. The proposed method does not require iteration; thus, the computational time and complexity are decreased enormously. In addition, the initialization is not crucial in the algorithm, so the algorithm’s robustness and specificity are improved. The experimental evaluation of the proposed method revealed effective segmentation in normal and abnormal (liver hemangioma and liver cancer) abdominal CT images. The average sensitivity, accuracy, and specificity for liver cancer are 96.59%, 98.65%, and 99.03%, respectively. The results of image segmentation approximate the manual segmentation results by the technical doctor. Moreover, our method shows superior flexibility to newly published method with comparable performance. The advantage of our method is verified with experimental results, which is described in detail. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problem of finding a collection of curves of minimum total length that meet all the lines intersecting a given planar convex body was initiated by Mazurkiewicz in 1916. Such a collection forms an opaque barrier for the convex body. In 1991, Shermer proposed an exponential-time algorithm that computes an interior-restricted barrier made of segments for any given convex n-gon. He conjectured that the barrier found by his algorithm is optimal, but this was refuted recently by Provan et al. Here, we give a Shermer-like algorithm that computes an interior polygonal barrier whose length is at most 1.7168 times the optimal and that runs in O(n) time. As a byproduct, we also deduce upper and lower bounds on the approximation ratio of Shermer's algorithm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tackles a distributed formation control problem where a group of vehicles is remotely controlled by a network of operators. Each operator-vehicle pair is attacked by an adversary, who corrupts the commands sent from the operator to the vehicle. From the point of view of operators, each adversary follows an attacking strategy linearly parameterized by some (potentially time-varying) matrix which is unknown a priori. In particular, we consider two scenarios depending upon whether adversaries can adapt their attacking tactics online. To assure mission completion in such a hostile environment, we propose two novel attack-resilient distributed control algorithms that allow operators to adjust their policies on the fly by exploiting the latest collected information about adversaries. Both algorithms enable vehicles to asymptotically achieve the desired formation from any initial configuration and initial estimate of the adversaries' strategies. It is further shown that the sequence of the distances to the desired formation is square summable for each proposed algorithm. In numerical examples, the convergence rates of our algorithms are exponential, outperforming the theoretic results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• An improved MLVSA model considering the polarization characteristics of incident EM waves is constructed. • The RAL of the manifold curve based on the differential geometry is derived for performance analysis of the MLVSA. • A group-lasso-based algorithm is proposed for joint DOA and polarization. • Proposed algorithm outperforms existing signal-separation-based algorithms. In this paper, we first derive an improved reflection model of arbitrarily polarized electromagnetic (EM) waves for mirrored systems. Then, a mirrored linear vector sensor array (MLVSA) model is constructed. The rate of change of the arc length (RAL) of the manifold curve is subsequently derived based on the differential geometry to analyze the parameter estimation accuracy of MLVSA. Furthermore, the Cramer–Rao bound (CRB) is derived under the framework of the manifold curve. Moreover, the direction-of-arrival (DOA) and polarization parameters are jointly estimated by solving a group-lasso problem. Compared with the signal-separation-based algorithms solved by undetermined linear equations, the proposed algorithm is superior, regarding the parameter estimation accuracy and multitarget resolution. Numerical simulations are conducted to further compare the performance of MLVSA and that of the nonmirrored array. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Image fusion can produce a single image that describes the scene better than the individual source image. One of the keys to image fusion algorithm is how to effectively and completely represent the source images. Morphological component analysis (MCA) believes that an image contains structures with different spatial morphologies and can be accordingly modeled as a superposition of cartoon and texture components, and that the sparse representations of these components can be obtained by some specific decomposition algorithms which exploit the structured dictionary. Compared with the traditional multiscale decomposition, which has been successfully applied to pixel-level image fusion, MCA employs the morphological diversity of an image and provides more complete representation for an image. Taking advantage of this property, we propose a multi-component fusion method for multi-source images in this paper. In our method, source images are separated into cartoon and texture components, and essential fusion takes place on the representation coefficients of these two components. Our fusion scheme is verified on three kinds of images and compared with six single-component fusion methods. According to the visual perceptions and objective evaluations on the fused results, our method can produce better fused images in our experiments, compared with other single-component fusion methods. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: We consider an operator–vehicle network where each vehicle is remotely maneuvered by an operator. The objective of the operators is to steer the vehicles to the desired formation subject to the given state and input constraints. Each operator–vehicle pair is attacked by an adversary who is able to maliciously replay the control commands sent from the operator. To play against attackers, we come up with a novel distributed resilient algorithm based on the receding-horizon control methodology, and show that the algorithm is able to allow vehicles, on the one hand, satisfy state and input constraints, and on the other hand, asymptotically achieve the desired formation despite replay attacks. With slight modifications, our proposed algorithm shows an analogous resilience to denial-of-service attacks. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we discuss the Cholesky decomposition of the Hermitian positive definite quaternion matrix. For the first time, the structure-preserving Gauss transformation is defined, and then a novel structure-preserving algorithm, which is applied to its real representation matrix, is proposed. Our algorithm needs only real number operations, does not depend on the quaternion toolbox for matlab (QTFM) and has more portability. Although the flops of our algorithm are theoretically about the same as those based on quaternion arithmetic operations or QTFM, numerical experiments show that our algorithm runs faster. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

A d-interval is the union of d disjoint intervals on the real line. A d-track interval is the union of d disjoint intervals on d disjoint parallel lines called tracks, one interval on each track. As generalizations of the ubiquitous interval graphs, d-interval graphs and d-track interval graphs have wide applications, traditionally to scheduling and resource allocation, and more recently to bioinformatics. In this paper, we prove that recognizing d-track interval graphs is NP-complete for any constant d≥2. This confirms a conjecture of Gyárfás and West in 1995. Previously only the complexity of the case d=2 was known. Our proof in fact implies that several restricted variants of this graph recognition problem, i.e., recognizing balanced d-track interval graphs, unit d-track interval graphs, and (2,...,2) d-track interval graphs, are all NP-complete. This partially answers another question recently raised by Gambette and Vialette. We also prove that recognizing depth-two 2-track interval graphs is NP-complete, even for the unit case. In sharp contrast, we present a simple linear-time algorithm for recognizing depth-two unit d-interval graphs. These and other results of ours give partial answers to a question of West and Shmoys in 1984 and a similar question of Gyárfás and West in 1995. Finally, we give the first bounds on the track number and the unit track number of a graph in terms of the number of vertices, the number of edges, and the maximum degree, and link the two numbers to the classical concepts of arboricity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Inspired by current challenges in data-intensive and energy-limited sensor networks, we formulate a coverage optimization problem for mobile sensors as a (constrained) repeated multi-player game. Each sensor tries to optimize its own coverage while minimizing the processing/energy cost. The sensors are subject to the informational restriction that the environmental distribution function is unknown a priori. We present two distributed learning algorithms where each sensor only remembers its own utility values and actions played during the last plays. These algorithms are proven to be convergent in probability to the set of (constrained) Nash equilibria and global optima of a certain coverage performance metric, respectively. Numerical examples are provided to verify the performance of our proposed algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a new image fusion algorithm based on non-subsampled contourlet transform (NSCT) is proposed for the fusion of multi-focus images. The selection of different subband coefficients obtained by the NSCT decomposition is critical to image fusion. So, in this paper, firstly, original images are decomposed into different frequency subband coefficients by NSCT. Secondly, the selection of the low-frequency subband coefficients and the bandpass directional subband coefficients is discussed in detail. For the selection of the low-frequency subband coefficients, the non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) method is adopted. For the selection of bandpass directional subband coefficients, a regional cross-gradient method that selects the coefficients according to the minimum of the regional cross-gradient is proposed. Finally, the fused image is obtained by performing the inverse NSCT on the combined coefficients. The experimental results show that the proposed fusion algorithm can achieve significant results in getting a new image where all parts are sharp. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We present three new approximation algorithms with improved constant ratios for selecting n points in n disks such that the minimum pairwise distance among the points is maximized. The LP algorithm can be extended for disjoint balls of arbitrary radii in ℝ, for any (fixed) dimension d, while preserving the features of the planar algorithm. The algorithm introduces a novel technique which combines linear programming and projections for approximating Euclidean distances. The previous best approximation ratio for dispersion in disjoint disks, even when all disks have the same radius, was 1/2. Our results give a positive answer to an open question raised by Cabello, who asked whether the ratio 1/2 could be improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given a set of points in the plane, and a sweep-line as a tool, what is best way to move the points to a target point using a sequence of sweeps? In a sweep, the sweep-line is placed at a start position somewhere in the plane, then moved orthogonally and continuously to another parallel end position, and then lifted from the plane. The cost of a sequence of sweeps is the total length of the sweeps. Another parameter of interest is the number of sweeps. Four variants are discussed, depending on whether the target is a hole or a pile, and whether the target is specified or freely selected by the algorithm. Here we present a ratio 4/ π≈1.27 approximation algorithm in the length measure, which performs at most four sweeps. We also prove that, for the two constrained variants, there are sets of n points for which any sequence of minimum cost requires 3 n/2− O(1) sweeps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: In comparative genomics, the first step of sequence analysis is usually to decompose two or more genomes into syntenic blocks that are segments of homologous chromosomes. For the reliable recovery of syntenic blocks, noise and ambiguities in the genomic maps need to be removed first. Maximal Strip Recovery (MSR) is an optimization problem proposed by Zheng, Zhu, and Sankoff for reliably recovering syntenic blocks from genomic maps in the midst of noise and ambiguities. Given genomic maps as sequences of gene markers, the objective of MSR- is to find subsequences, one subsequence of each genomic map, such that the total length of syntenic blocks in these subsequences is maximized. For any constant , a polynomial-time -approximation for MSR- was previously known. In this paper, we show that for any , MSR- is APX-hard, even for the most basic version of the problem in which all gene markers are distinct and appear in positive orientation in each genomic map. Moreover, we provide the first explicit lower bounds on approximating MSR- for all . In particular, we show that MSR- is NP-hard to approximate within . From the other direction, we show that the previous -approximation for MSR- can be optimized into a polynomial-time algorithm even if is not a constant but is part of the input. We then extend our inapproximability results to several related problems including CMSR-, -gap-MSR-, and -gap-CMSR-. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this study, a measurement method of parametric temperature model for industrial bioreactor is proposed. The system of industrial bioreactor is an integrating process with time delay. Obviously, it cannot hold a stable system response since the characteristic roots are located on the imaginary axis of the complex plane. In this paper, the temperature model of the bioreactor was obtained by maintaining the bioreactor continuous response to a monopulse signal. This proposed method has a powerful ability to steady system response. The bioreactor consists of 30L fermentor, two impellers and four baffles. By using the proposed method and Bierman algorithm, the parameters of the temperature model for bioreactor are successfully measured on-line. Simulation results are given to show the effectiveness of the measurement method. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A geometric spanning tree of a point set is a tree whose vertex set is and whose edge set is a set of non-crossing straight line segments with endpoints in . Given a set of red points and a set of blue points in the plane, the red/blue spanning tree problem is to find a geometric spanning tree for red points and a geometric spanning tree for blue points such that the number of crossing points of the two trees is a minimum. If no three points are collinear, we show that the minimum number of crossing points is completely determined by the number of maximal red (or blue) chains on the convex hull of all red points and blue points. We design an optimal algorithm for constructing a geometric spanning tree of all the red points and a geometric spanning tree of all the blue points with the minimum number of crossing points. If collinear points are allowed, we prove that the problem of deciding whether there exists a geometric spanning path of all the red points and a geometric spanning path of all the blue points without crossing is NP-complete. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Let Ω be a disk of radius R in the plane. A set F of unit disks contained in Ω forms a maximal packing if the unit disks are pairwise interior-disjoint and the set is maximal, i.e., it is not possible to add another disk to F while maintaining the packing property. A point p is hidden within the 'forest' defined by F if any ray with apex p intersects some disk of F, that is, a person standing at p can hide without being seen from outside the forest. We show that if the radius R of Ω is large enough, one can find a hidden point for any maximal packing of unit disks in Ω. This proves a conjecture of Joseph Mitchell. We also present an O( nlog n)-time algorithm that, given a forest with n (not necessarily congruent) disks, computes the boundary illumination map of all disks in the forest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we propose an iterative algorithm to compute the minimum norm least-squares solution of AXB+CYD=E, based on a matrix form of the algorithm LSQR for solving the least squares problem. We then apply this algorithm to compute the minimum norm least-squares centrosymmetric solution of min X|AXB-E|F. Numerical results are provided to verify the efficiency of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We propose a class of discrete-time dynamic average consensus algorithms that allow a group of agents to track the average of their reference inputs. The convergence results rely on the input-to-output stability properties of static average consensus algorithms and require that the union of communication graphs over a bounded period of time be strongly connected. The only requirement on the set of reference inputs is that the maximum relative deviation between the th-order differences of any two reference inputs be bounded for some integer . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The problem of source direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation using a sensor array is addressed, where some of the sensors are perfectly calibrated, while others are uncalibrated. An algorithm is proposed for estimating the source directions in addition to the estimation of unknown array parameters such as sensor gains and phases, as a way of performing array self-calibration. The cost function is an extension of the maximum likelihood (ML) criteria that were originally developed for DOA estimation with a perfectly calibrated array. A particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm is used to explore the high-dimensional problem space and find the global minimum of the cost function. The design of the PSO is a combination of the problem-independent kernel and some newly introduced problem-specific features such as search space mapping, particle velocity control, and particle position clipping. This architecture plus properly selected parameters make the PSO highly flexible and reusable, while being sufficiently specific and effective in the current application. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed technique may produce more accurate estimates of the source bearings and unknown array parameters in a cheaper way as compared with other popular methods, with the root-mean-squared error (RMSE) approaching and asymptotically attaining the Cramer Rao bound (CRB) even in unfavorable conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Given a set S of n points in , we wish to decide whether S has a subset of size at least k with Euclidean diameter at most r. It is unknown whether this decision problem is NP-hard. The two closely related optimization problems, (i) finding a largest subset of diameter at most r, and (ii) finding a subset of the smallest diameter of size at least k, were recently considered by Afshani and Chan. For maximizing the size, they presented several polynomial-time algorithms with constant approximation factors, the best of which has a factor of . For maximizing the diameter, they presented a polynomial-time approximation scheme. In this paper, we present improved approximation algorithms for both optimization problems. For maximizing the size, we present two algorithms: the first one improves the approximation factor to and the running time by an factor; the second one improves the approximation factor to 2 and the running time by an factor. For minimizing the diameter, we improve the running time of the PTAS from to . [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this paper, we propose two iterative algorithms to solve the matrix equation AXB + CX T D = E. The first algorithm is applied when the matrix equation is consistent. In this case, for any (special) initial matrix X 1, a solution (the minimal Frobenius norm solution) can be obtained within finite iteration steps in the absence of roundoff errors. The second algorithm is applied when the matrix equation is inconsistent. In this case, for any (special) initial matrix X 1, a least squares solution (the minimal Frobenius norm least squares solution) can be obtained within finite iteration steps in the absence of roundoff errors. Some examples verify the efficiency of these algorithms. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this paper, we introduce the 2D hexagonal lattice as a biologically meaningful alternative to the standard square lattice for the study of protein folding in the HP model. We show that the hexagonal lattice alleviates the "sharp turn" problem and models certain aspects of the protein secondary structure more realistically. We present a ⅙-approximation and a clustering heuristic for protein folding on the hexagonal lattice. In addition to these two algorithms, we also implement a Monte Carlo Metropolis algorithm and a branch-and-bound partial enumeration algorithm, and conduct experiments to compare their effectiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT), wearable devices have become ubiquitous and interconnected in daily lives. Because wearable devices collect, transmit, and monitor humans' physiological signals, data privacy should be a concern, as well as fully protected, throughout the whole process. However, the existing privacy protection methods are insufficient. In this paper, we propose a practical privacy-preserving mechanism for physiological signals collected by intelligent wearable devices. In the data acquisition and transmission stage, we employed existing asymmetry encryption-based methods. In the data publishing stage, we proposed a new model based on the combination and optimization of k-anonymity and differential privacy. An entropy-based personalized k-anonymity algorithm is proposed to improve the performance on processing the static and long-term data. Moreover, we use the symmetry of differential privacy and propose the temporal differential privacy mechanism for real-time data to suppress the privacy leakage while updating data. It is proved theoretically that the combination of the two algorithms is reasonable. Finally, we use smart bracelets as an example to verify the performance of our mechanism. The experiment results show that personalized k-anonymity improves up to 6.25% in terms of security index compared with traditional k-anonymity, and the grouping results are more centralized. Moreover, temporal differential privacy effectively reduces the amount of information exposed, which protects the privacy of IoT-based users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Lumbar disc herniation is a common degenerative lumbar disease with an increasing incidence. Percutaneous endoscopic lumbar discectomy can treat lumbar disc herniation safely and effectively with a minimally invasive procedure. However, the learning curve of this technology is steep, which means that initial learners are often not sufficiently proficient in endoscopic operations, which can easily lead to iatrogenic damage. At present, the application of computer deep learning technology to clinical diagnosis, treatment, and surgical navigation has achieved satisfactory results. Purpose: The objective of our team is to develop a multi-element identification system for the visual field of endoscopic spine surgery using deep learning algorithms and to evaluate the feasibility of this system. Method: We established an image database by collecting surgical videos of 48 patients diagnosed with lumbar disc herniation, which was labeled by two spinal surgeons. We selected 6000 images of the visual field of percutaneous endoscopic spine surgery (including various tissue structures and surgical instruments), divided into the training data, validation data, and test data according to 2:1:2. We developed convolutional neural network models based on instance segmentation—Solov2, CondInst, Mask R-CNN and Yolact, and set the four network model backbone as ResNet101 and ResNet50 respectively. Mean average precision (mAP) and frames per second (FPS) were used to measure the performance of each model for classification, localization and recognition in real time, and AP (average) is used to evaluate how easily an element is detected by neural networks based on computer deep learning. Result: Comprehensively comparing mAP and FSP of each model for bounding box test and segmentation task for the test set of images, we found that Solov2 (ResNet101) (mAP = 73.5%, FPS = 28.9), Mask R-CNN (ResNet101) (mAP = 72.8%, FPS = 28.5) models are the most stable, with higher precision and faster image processing speed. Combining the average precision of the elements in the bounding box test and segmentation tasks in each network, the AP(average) was highest for tool 3 (bbox-0.85, segm-0.89) and lowest for tool 5 (bbox-0.63, segm-0.72) in the instrumentation, whereas in the anatomical tissue elements, the fibrosus annulus (bbox-0.68, segm-0.69) and ligamentum flavum (bbox-0.65, segm-0.62) had higher AP(average),while extra-dural fat (bbox-0.42, segm-0.44) was lowest. Conclusion: Our team has developed a multi-element identification system for the visual field of percutaneous endoscopic spine surgery adapted to the interlaminar and foraminal approaches, which can identify and track anatomical tissue (nerve, ligamentum flavum, nucleus pulposus, etc.) and surgical instruments (endoscopic forceps, an high-speed diamond burr, etc.), which can be used in the future as a virtual educational tool or applied to the intraoperative real-time assistance system for spinal endoscopic operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Automatic modulation recognition is a critical challenge in the field of cognitive radio. In the process of communication, radio signals are modulated in various modes and are interfered by the complex electromagnetic environment. To cope with these problems and avoid manual selection of complex expert features, we propose a multi-level feature extraction algorithm based on deep learning to adequately exploit the hidden feature information of modulated signals. Our algorithm integrates the correlation between the channels of radio signals with convolutional neural networks and Bidirectional Long Short-term Memory (Bi-LSTM), and adopts the appropriate skip connection, which avoids the loss of valid information and achieves the complementarity between spatial and temporal features. In our model, the one-dimensional convolutional layer is specially utilized to enrich the feature representation of each sample point of in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) signals and emphasize the mutual influence of I channel (in-phase signal) and Q channel (quadrature signal). In addition, the label smoothing technique is used to improve the generalization ability of the model. Our proposed method is also of certain significance for other signal processing methods based on deep learning. Experiment results demonstrate that our algorithm outperforms the popular algorithms and is of higher robustness. Specifically, the proposed method improves the recognition accuracy, reaching 92.68% at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). In particular, it also reduces the difficulty of recognition for multiple quadrature amplitude modulation (MQAM) signals and significantly improves the recognition accuracy for 16QAM and 64QAM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Coronary calcium detection in medicine image processing is a hot research topic. According to the low resolution and complex background in medicine image, an improved coronary calcium detection algorithm based on the Single Shot MultiBox Detector (SSD) in Mimics is proposed in this paper. The algorithm firstly uses the aggregate channel feature model to preprocess the image to obtain the suspected calcium area, which greatly reduces the time of single-frame image detection. The basic network VGG-16 is replaced by Resnet-50, which introduces the identity mapping to solve the problem of reducing the detection accuracy when the number of network layers are increased. Finally, the powerful and flexible two-parameter loss function is used to optimize the training deep network and improve the network model generalization ability. Qualitative and quantitative experiments show that the performance of the proposed detection algorithm exceeds the existing calcium detection algorithms, and the detection efficiency is improved while ensuring the accuracy of calcium detection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]